Understanding perceptions of St John Cymru Wales

Why the client needed the research
In order to support its Recruitment and Retention, Fundraising, PR and Image campaigns, St John Cymru wished to commission independent market research. Very little market research had been undertaken in the last few years by the organisation and none specifically in Wales.

Two core target audiences for the research were identified:
1. External: general public (including young people aged under 18, as well as adults (since 60% of members are aged under 18)
2. Internal: volunteers (across the Whole of Wales)
Our Approach
The diverse objectives and a variety of target audiences (internal, external, younger and older), presented its own challenges, especially within a limited budget. To better understand attainment of key performance indicators (understanding of organisation & remit) different research techniques were required. Moreover, different methodologies were required for the internal and external target audiences:

1. Quantitative, i.e. measuring awareness of St John Cymru, knowledge of its remit and likelihood of donating

2. Qualitative, i.e. exploring perceptions and attitudes towards St John Cymru and its brand image, including uniforms, as well as what messages could be used to aid recruitment of new members

The first phase of the study focused on external audiences via Beaufort’s Wales Omnibus Survey (face-to-face interviews in-home with representative sample of adults across Wales aged 16+), the Beaufort Children’s Omnibus (face-to-face interviews in home with a representative sample of children and young people aged 7-18 years), in addition to focus groups with adults and 14 to 18 year olds not involved with St John Cymru.

At the second stage, the attention was turned to the internal perspective, via a telephone survey of volunteers aged 14+ which again was supplemented by focus groups with adult and younger (14 to 18 year old volunteers).
The outcome
Carrying out the external research first provided an invaluable overview (who’s heard of St John Cymru, what do they know about what it does, how is it perceived – reliable / caring / boring / etc, would they donate and why / not) before moving on to focus on the internal, volunteer perspective (why did they get involved, what do they get out of it, what would encourage others to join). The outcomes of both phases of research provided actionable recommendations on how the organisation could address external perceptions of the organisation and improve internal processes.